Looking for tips on the Gamsat

Green111 wrote: »

Hi,

I am thinking about doing the Gamsat in the UK in September. I have no science just LC Biology so I am nervous about section 3. I would be grateful for any advice and book suggestions. Thank you

I'm in the same boat as you, going to Liverpool in September. I'm working my way through the dummies books, organic, chemistry, physics and biology. Griffiths is a good book to give you structure and a good essay format which is easy to master and get high scores with. Examkrakers 101 is good for section 1. Khan academy has proved to be a fantastic online resource for me.

Send me a pm with your email I'll sort you out with most of the books in pdf format free of charge

My advice from another post. More to do with techniques but there are some recommended materials. Hope it helps!

" No experience with Medprep or Des O'Neill but the Gold standard was good on some accounts. It gives a great general outline on all of the sciences and the online account MCAT style questions are effective in testing your general knowledge on them. However, I would also use Khan academy for a more in depth (and far better explained) knowledge on chem, biology, organic chem and physics. The Gold standard also gives a good guide on what you need to memorize for the exam and what you only need to understand so that you can answer a problem-based question on it.

For the sciences I would also make sure you get as much sample questions/tests as you can because although the background knowledge is important it is far more vital that you get used to the style and pattern of questions in all of the four sciences. Ozimed and the gold standard have some practice exams but the most realistic and effective exams are the ACER ones (green and purple booklet). Do every test you have under strict timed conditions and learn from your mistakes. For any mistake or pitfall that you make I would also keep a copybook/journal of where you went wrong and try and fix this for the next test. The Goldstandard online a/c has youtube tutorials on both ACER practice tests and how they approach the questions. I cannot overstate how important this was to me getting a decent mark in section 3 because you pick up so many helpful tips and tricks from it.

SIDENOTE: There are twice as many chemistry and biology questions compared to physics so keep this in mind when studying. However, getting a physics question right may carry more weight as few will get it right.

For section 1 I would acquire MCAT exam krackers 101 which has similar style questions to gamsat sect 1. Although it's not quite the same you pick up the basic strategies towards answering multiple choice text/figure comprehension questions. ACER and other practice tests are also vital for this so get your hands on as much practice questions and perform these under timed conditions as much as possible. Note down your mistakes and try and correct these for future tests. You will hear some people saying to read "broadly" but that is honestly bull****. You do need to get acquainted with the different type of texts that will come up so I would advise to read a SLIGHT bit of poetry, drama, shorts stories, humanitarian journals, economic articles and articles with figures and graphs. When reading these try to think critically about them and think of the typical gamsat questions that could apply for them (you should also make a list of typical questions so that you're familiar with them).

Finally for section 2 I would get into the habit of answering part A and B essays on daily basis (or every second day depending on your commitments). Again strict timing of half an hour per essay. Get someone who is from an arts background or who is good at writing essays themselves to overlook your essays to assess the quality of them. The GOLD STANDARD recently showed on their online a/c what a poor, average and excellent essay looks like and roughly how long they have to be ( 2 and 1/2 A4 pages for me) so this is an excellent resource to base a blueprint essay on for the exam. Through a lot of googling and looking at the resources that I purchased (also in the gold standard) I made a list of all likely topics to come up. I practised essays on these and developed my own arguments on them. AC Grayling's book "the meaning of things" provides interesting insights into many of these topics if you are poor at developing your own ideas (ie I used this a lot!). Although section B is meant to be more "reflective" than section A, I found that an argumentative style of writing worked for both. Using real life examples adds power to your essay so I would encourage you to stay in touch with the news every day and to read opinion pieces in good newspapers (again do this but don't get bogged down in it). Make sure you learn a good quote for each "topic" as all correctors LOVE these and making up a catchy title will also work in your favour. Again, note your mistakes as you go along.

PS try not to get bogged down in any question for section 1 and 3 if you're stuck. Make an educated guess and move along. If you're running short on time look for questions (particularly in section 3) that have 4/5 questions attached if that makes sense. You kill a few birds with one stone rather than being stuck on a single question for ages. Finally, if you've five minutes left pick a letter (I picked C) and make sure you leave no blank questions. An obvious statement, but I had 15 questions unanswered in section 1 and 40 unanswered in section 3 with 5 mins to go and I somehow managed to get 59. So if you answer as much questions CORRECTLY as you can and then make sure all blanks are filled in you "should" be ok. Best of luck to everyone sitting it in September or next March! "

This might sound bad, but your best bet is to just give it a go.
That's what I did in 2012. Then I repeated it this year - only prep doing the acer material over and over again.
There are some questions which practically throw the solutions at you!
No study for subjects necessary.
Narrow it down to two options and guess.

That's probably not what you wanted to hear.
But the first go will give you a feeling for the test and the second will then be a success!

So September test 1 March test 2 and Acer materials and you'll be fine